Cambodia’s Oscar Entry ‘Meeting With Pol Pot’ by Rithy Panh Lands North American Distribution (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comElsa Keslassy International Correspondent Strand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to Rithy Panh’s “Meeting With Pol Pot” which world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and represents Cambodia in the international feature film race.
Sold by Playtime, the film is based on real events chronicled by American war journalist Elizabeth Becker in her book “When the War Was Over: Cambodia and The Khmer Rouge Revolution.” The film, which stars Irene Jacob as Becker, charts the deadly journey of two journalists and an academic who travel to Democratic Kampuchea in the midst of Pol Pot’s dictatorship after accepting an invitation from the regime.
The cast is completed by Gregoire Colin and Cyril Guei. It marks the fourth collaboration between Panh and Strand Releasing who previously teamed on “The Missing Pictures” which went on to earn an Oscar nomination in 2013, followed by “Exile” and “Irradiated” which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2020.
Panh recently travelled to tour a retrospective of his films at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio and the BAM Pacific Film Archives in Berkeley, California. “We’re thrilled to be working again with Playtime and Rithy on this important film,” said Strand Releasing’s Jon Gerrans who negotiated the deal with Nicolas Brigaud-Robert from Playtime. “The fact that it memorializes such an important historical account of Elizabeth Becker’s harrowing meeting with Pol Pot is a testament to Rithy’s continuation to his work to document the atrocities that affected his country,” Gerrans continued.
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